Alma Plaza (Albertson's): Skepticism of Opponents' position

BPA Position

The BPA (and the BPA Board) takes no position on the Alma Plaza
development plan relative to the appropriate size for the grocery store.
Although there is intense support in the Barron Park neighborhood
for having a grocery store there,
there is considerable difference of opinion about what is an
appropriate size limit.

"regional draw":
The opponents are vague about why they believe that this will be
a "regional draw."
There are much larger grocery stores ("mega-stores")
at the Palo Alto borders
(Safeway in Menlo Park and Safeway and Albertson's on California Avenue
in Mountain View).

Would the Alma Plaza store be enough larger than
existing Palo Alto grocery stores
to cause people to bypass them in favor of this store?
The Midtown Safeway provides a possible counter-point:
It does very good business despite nearby mega-stores,
presumably because the convenience outweighs the advantages
of the mega-stores.
Would people who currently patronize Midtown Safeway for the
Safeway mega-store in Mountain View (or Albertson's or Costco)
bypass it in favor of an intermediate-sized grocery in Alma Plaza?

Inadequate parking: The concern about overflow parking
on adjacent neighborhood streets seems unfounded.
If the store's parking lot is inadequate, people are more likely to
shift their business to one of the many other grocery stores
within reasonable driving distance.
The inconvenience of parking outside the store's parking lot
is greatly increased by stores using systems that automatically
lock the wheels of shopping carts when there is an attempt to
take them beyond the parking lot.

Increased traffic on Alma in peak hours, with diversion onto
local streets:
It seems unlikely that a significant number of people would
choose to get onto Alma during peak hours simply to get to this store.
Given that there are so many alternate choices for grocery stores,
people would seem more likely to go to one that is closer
to their existing commute route,
or they would go to the Alma Plaza store outside of peak hours.